1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates generally to electronic commerce and more specifically to facilitating multi-phase electronic bid evaluation.
2. Related Art
Bidding refers to a process in which a buyer requests bids from various suppliers for goods/services sought to be procured/sourced, and evaluates the received bids to select a suitable supplier generally according to a pre-specified criteria. Typically, the requests are in the form of request for quotes/information/proposals (RFQ/I/Ps or in general RFXs), tenders, etc. In general, the buyer specifies the specific terms and information that is required as a part of the bid, and the supplier accordingly provides the requested information/terms.
It is often required that the bid evaluation be conducted in multiple phases. For example, government/public sector organizations in several countries, such as India require that suppliers be evaluated in two phases—a technical phase and a commercial phase. In the technical phase the technical capability of the suppliers (for providing the desired goods/services) is evaluated while in the commercial phase the cost of providing the specific goods/services, delivery/promised dates, transportation/logistics planning etc. are evaluated. Other types and/or number of phases may also be conducted as part of bidding.
In a prior paper-based approach, such multi-phase bid evaluation required each supplier organization to submit quotes with technical and commercial information in separate sealed envelopes with the appropriate envelopes being opened during the corresponding phase. In such an approach, the envelopes containing commercial information of only suppliers qualifying in the technical phase are opened for further evaluation. The envelopes containing the commercial information of the non-qualifying suppliers may be disposed of or returned, without opening them.
Unfortunately, such paper-based approaches are often inconvenient and inefficient.
In the drawings, like reference numbers generally indicate identical, functionally similar, and/or structurally similar elements. The drawing in which an element first appears is indicated by the leftmost digit(s) in the corresponding reference number.